To Keep the Works from Burning
In 2023, a package containing a collection of sketchbooks arrived at the Art Brut Gallery. They were unsigned, and the address on the parcel was illegible. Without knowing the author, we decided to liberate selected works trapped within the pages – their enlargements found their way onto the walls of our Gallery in February 2024.
The art spoke through the work itself, rather than through its creator, and the mysterious, nonlinear journey across the sketchbook pages – as random as the reality we live in – proved to be a moment of intriguing and profound engagement with the art. The questions raised by the exhibition created a space for an objective encounter with the works, while the anonymity of the artist freed viewers from preconceptions about their talent. It also prevented us from interpreting the works solely through the lens of the artist’s everyday life.
In 2025 – on 12 June – we received another “armour-packed” parcel containing large-format works, and at the beginning of July yet another. No return address, no sender’s name… Inside the package we found a short note: “I am sending and donating these paintings to the Gallery in Lublin, because you are doing excellent work. You may do with them whatever you wish. I am sending the paintings because I destroy them / burn them / paint them over, so that the demons may leave me, abandon me…”
All of the works we received will be exhibited in September at the second Lublin exhibition of the Nameless Artist. His pieces will also become part of a permanent display in the building of our Teatr Ludzi Niepełnosprawnych in Lublin, at 3 Jastrzębia Street.
Exhibition Opening in Pictures:
The exhibition will be on view at the Art Brut Gallery, Centre for Culture in Lublin (12 Peowiaków Street), from 9 September to 3 October 2025. You are warmly invited!
Własność Fundacji Teatroterapia Lubelska. Wszystkie prawa zastrzeżone.
Zrealizowano przy pomocy finansowej Miasta Lublin